Searching for a property online? (Part 2)
Be aware of scammers and fraudsters who want you to part with your hard-earned savings
Due to the proliferation of property sale and rental portals, many owners or prospective buyers take the decision of searching online to purchase their home. Spain’s biggest property sales and rentals platforms include Idealista, Fotocasa, Habitaclia, Pisos.com, etc. Here, you can browse thousands of adverts. Many estate agencies, as well as having their own websites, also advertise here.
As these portals have become an important tool for buying properties, new types of fraud are arising all the time. It’s also very easy for purchasers to forget the basic rules of internet safety.
Pitfalls facing purchasers
The most common form of real estate con is the existence of false or non-existent real estate. These are placed on sale portals by fake real estate agencies. The scam has evolved, no longer are there expensive properties at incredibly cheap prices, as these are too easy for the portal to spot, recognise them as a fraud and remove them. Nowadays, the properties advertised are priced according to the market.
■ How to spot a bonafide agent:
If you like the look of an advertised property and it is published by a real estate agency, look at any online reviews for them by customers. However, be careful with the opinions you read since some of them are not reliable. Take them into account, but be cautious and look for confirmation on other sites!
Consult their website and offices and verify they show their API logo meaning they are registered estate agents (Agente propiedad inmobilaria – API). APIs comply with the law and have signed a code of conduct. They may also be members of other Spanish real estate associations
A good estate agent will pay attention to you, answer the phone when you call, reply to your emails, send you the information you require and if you want to visit a property a second or third time, they’ll help you do another viewing at your convenience.
Not only should your estate agent know the local area, the market and the legal framework, but also how best to deal with your specific needs as a foreign buyer. They should also be perfectly bilingual in Spanish and English.
Look for other signs of professionalism and quality – can they help you organise a mortgage? Do they have a legal department? Talk to friends who have used these different services and search for their success rate and comments on the internet to give you a realistic picture of how good each of your real estate candidates are.
In case of doubt, it is also important to request the agency to close the operation in their offices and sign the documentation in person with them.
■ Owners properties:
Verify the identity of the seller and everything that surrounds the operation. Many times the simplest details can give you clues that allow you to avoid falling victim to a fraud.
Do not provide any information by email or telephone that may compromise you. If the person you are dealing
advertising with is a conman, this information can be used fraudulently. Keep in mind that in many cases, the offender’s aim is to gain your confidence in order to carry out the fraud and if he isn’t successful, he can use your details to harm you in another way.
Visit the building the apartment is located in. In most cases, real estate agencies who publish rent or sale of flats do not usually publish the address to avoid buyers having direct contact with the owner. However, if a private owner has published the advert, it might give the full address, so take the opportunity to visit the area and view the property. Ask the neighbours and show them photos from the portal. If the photos don’t correspond to the property, they will soon let you know that you are being duped.
Another option is to go to Google Images to verify if the photos of the property belong to an image bank, or similar.
Never make any type of advance payment without physically viewing the property or knowing the owner in person.
Another problem is the state of the property, if there are humidity problems, or if the cracks we see are serious or just cosmetic. So ask the owner if you can take an electrician or architect along to check the condition of the property. If the owner is unhappy about this, you can be sure there is a problem somewhere.
Buying off plans is a cheaper form of purchase that can save us up to 10% of the final price. However, money must be advanced to the builder, the landowner or a real estate agency.
You will lose this down payment if the builder, owner or agency does a runner. So even more reason to do your homework to make sure you are not dealing with fraudsters.
Something that might be kept from us, is that the property has charges such as an unpaid mortgage or debts with the tax office. The solution is to go to the property registry and ask for a ‘nota simple’ which will show all charges against the property.
In the latest frauds the ‘scammers’ advertise a reasonably priced property for the area (but with top end finishing touches and furniture), but when you contact them, they say can’t show it to you. They then refer you to a so-called professional who will take care of everything. This should cause alarm bells to go off.
The ‘professional’ will ask us to carry out all communication by email and preferably in English (usually Google translated on his part), and will ask us for a commission for their involvement, even if we have not yet even visited the apartment. If we make the payment, hey ho.. we have fallen for the scam!
Use common sense when replying to would-be buyers or when contacting property owners yourself, and remember if it is too good to be true, the odds are it’s a scam.